


Sleepover With the Enemy

by TearsAndFlowers



Series: Shadow Boom AU [2]
Category: Sonic Boom (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Attempted Murder, Gen, amy is in denial about her feelings, knuckles knows what's up, shadow is weird, sticks is oblivious, tails is more aggressive in this universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 08:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17597690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TearsAndFlowers/pseuds/TearsAndFlowers
Summary: After Shadow and Eggman's homes are both destroyed by a storm, they both decide to crash at Tails' place. They slowly drive Tails insane.(Alternate universe where Sonic and Shadow's roles are switched. Re-imagining of "Can an Evil Genius Crash on Your Couch for a Few Days?". Contains some shipping, though it's not the main focus.)





	Sleepover With the Enemy

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry about how long this took! It's been quite a while since I posted a story for this AU, hasn't it? I know, it has some problems; I hope it's still enjoyable anyway. (I've already gone over the story and tweaked it dozens of times, so I hope there aren't any other errors that I've missed.)
> 
> Oh yeah, this has shipping in it, but it's still tagged as a gen fic, since the shipping isn't really the main focus. Should I have tagged it as a shipfic anyway? I'm kind of still figuring out how stuff works on AO3, even after all this time.

It all started one normal, pleasant night. Well, it _was_ pleasant until the storm hit. Rain wasn’t such a bad sound, but thunder? To Tails, thunder was terrifying. Lightning was even more so. The storm raged on for a few hours, making it impossible for Tails to fall asleep.

Then there was a knock at the door. Grateful for the distraction, Tails got out of bed and went to answer the door. He was surprised when he saw who was standing outside.

“Oh, hey, Shadow,” Tails greeted. “What brings you here?”

“The storm destroyed my shack."

“You need a place to stay until it’s fixed.”

Shadow nodded. Tails realized that he and Shadow hadn’t had a sleepover in a very long time. Considering that his best friend had nowhere else to go tonight, Tails figured this was the perfect time to rectify that.

“Alright, you can stay.”

Shadow teleported inside.

“I’ll get you a pillow,” Tails said. “Make yourself comfortable on the couch.”

Shadow and Tails spent about an hour watching television. By the time they were finished, the storm has calmed down somewhat; it was still raining, but more lightly, and the thunder and lightning had stopped.

As they both settled down for the night, Tails got comfy under his blanket. He was just about to go to sleep, when…

“When you close the fridge, does the light stay on?” Shadow mumbled.

Tails now remembered why he never let Shadow sleep at his house. Shadow had a habit of pondering completely random things as he was falling asleep. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing if he didn’t feel the need to say all of it out loud. If Tails was lucky, Shadow would only keep him up for one hour.

Tails didn’t get so lucky.

“Do non-anthropomorphic animals think in words or the noises they make?”  
“Do vegans eat animal crackers?”  
“If bread is square, then why is sandwich meat round?”  
“Why are the past and present tense of ‘read’ both spelled the same, but the past tense of ‘lead’ is spelled 'led’?”  
“Is there another word for ‘thesaurus’?”

Five agonizing hours later, there was another knock at the door. Tails refused to get up, so Shadow answered this time.

“Hi!” Eggman greeted.

Shadow glared at him. “What do you want?”

“First of all, thank you for answering the door at such a late hour. I realize what an inconvenience this must be--”

“Will you just get to the point?”

“Right. I, uh...I need your help.”

“No.”

Shadow went to slam the door on Eggman, but Eggman moved more quickly. Holding the door open with his hand, the man continued.

“My sinister island lair--you know, the ultra-high-tech stronghold where I hatch my diabolical schemes to eliminate you--it was destroyed in the storm. I was hoping I could crash with you for a few days, but then I saw that your shack got destroyed too, so I came here instead.”

Shadow’s stone cold expression didn’t change. “Still no.”

“Oh come on, help an evil genius out here!” Eggman let go of the door to clasp his hands together. “Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“ _No_.”

“ _Pleeeeeease_?” Eggman kneeled on the ground, staring at Shadow with sad eyes.

“You’re not going to leave us alone until we say yes, are you?” Tails asked, walking over towards Shadow and Eggman.

“Nope!” Eggman replied.

Tails let out a long sigh. “Sure, why the heck not?” he grumbled.

“Oh thank you, thank you!”

“You’re sleeping on the floor.” And with that, Tails headed back to bed.

* * *

Tails was awoken sometime later by the beeping of a microwave. Shadow must have gotten hungry. As the microwave hummed, the smell of a ham and cheese Mildly Warm Pocket filled the air.

“Wait, I don’t remember buying Mildly Warm Pockets…”

“I bought them a second ago,” Shadow explained (due to his super speed, he probably meant this literally). “There’s a store in the next village over that opens very early in the morning.”

“Early in the--” Tails jumped out of bed and peeked outside of the window. The sun was already starting to rise. “Aw, man…”

Little did Tails know that this was only the beginning of the most sleepless week in his life.

* * *

The rest of the day went by mostly normally, aside from Eggman not attacking the gang like he usually was. However, Tails and Shadow soon wished that he _was_ attacking them.

When Amy, Sticks, and Knuckles dropped by Tails’ house, they certainly weren’t expecting to see Eggman there. They especially weren’t expecting to see him lounging on Tails’ couch, wearing pink footie pajamas.

“Oh, hey gang!” Eggman greeted.

“What’s he doing here?” Knuckles asked.

Shadow sighed. “Both of our homes were damaged by the storm, so we’re both staying here until they’re fixed.”

“Ahem, still waiting on that Salmon Eggs Benedict,” Eggman said impatiently.

“Coming, coming!” Tails rushed into the room with a tray.

Eggman looked at the Salmon Eggs Benedict. “I asked for egg whites. These are yellows. See the yellow? I'm trying to watch my cholesterol. And this salmon is farm-raised! What is this, prison?”

As Eggman continued to critique Tails’ cooking, Amy and Knuckles noticed Sticks’ panicked state.

“It's all some evil plot, man!” the paranoid badger said to them. “First he lures us in with some terrible roommate ploy, but then wham! Out comes this fifty-foot Obliterator Bot that obliterates us all! We gotta get outta here.”

“That does sound like something Eggman would do,” Amy acknowledged. “But what if he really does need our help? We can’t just turn him down; we’d be no better than he is.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine,” Knuckles assured Sticks. “Shadow and Tails can defend themselves.”

Sticks still looked worried.

“Knuckles is right, Sticks.” Amy put a hand on Sticks’ shoulder. “And besides, we’ll be there to help.”

Sticks still didn’t quite relax, but managed a smile. Amy blushed. Gosh, she could stare at Sticks’ smile all--

Amy cleared her throat, pushing those thoughts she certainly did _not_ have to the back of her mind. She quickly turned her attention to Eggman.

“Do you feel scared without a home?” she asked as she approached the evil scientist, who Tails had finally gotten to eat his Salmon Eggs Benedict. “Do you feel alone? Are you eating your feelings?”

Eggman inched away from her uncomfortably. “Somebody get her away from me.”

“It shouldn’t take long for Eggman and Shadow’s homes to be repaired.” Tails had just finished cleaning up in the kitchen. “What could possibly happen in just a few days?”

* * *

As it turned out, a _lot_ of things can happen in just a few days. Shadow’s random nightly ponderings were just the beginning.

“In the word ‘scent’, is it the ‘c’ or the ‘s’ that’s silent?”  
“What would chairs look like if our legs were backwards?”  
“What would happen if you put a werewolf on the moon?”  
“If you water an apple tree with apple juice, is that forced cannibalism?”  
“I’m starting to think that the socks we lose in the dryer turn into tupperware lids.”

“Does he always do this?” Eggman whispered.

“Yep,” Tails answered with a sigh.

Somehow, the fox managed to fall asleep.

An hour later, Tails was rudely awoken when he was smacked with a pillow. He quickly sat up, greeted by the sight of Eggman grinning at him.

“Pillow fight!” Eggman shouted.

Tails responded by whacking Eggman with his own pillow, hard enough to knock the man out for about an hour or so. He was about to go back to sleep, when he noticed Shadow re-arranging the furniture.

“Seriously, Shadow?”

“What? I couldn't sleep.”

“Well, could you not move my furniture while I'm trying to sleep?”

Shadow stopped pushing a chair and sighed. “Fine, I'll find something else to do.”

Shadow went back to the couch, which was now much closer to the TV. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV on.

“Oh, _Exterminator 2_ is on.”

“That was always one of your favorites, wasn’t it?” Tails lay back down on his bed. “Okay, but please try to keep the volume down.”

Unfortunately, Shadow did not keep the volume down.

When the movie finally ended a few hours later, it seemed like Shadow was finally ready to go back to sleep. Tails was relieved. Then he noticed that Eggman had regained consciousness.

“Who’s up for a board game? I’ve got _Peril_!”

“No,” Shadow and Tails replied in unison.

“Oh well, that’s okay. You’re afraid to admit that you’re bad at this game. I understand.”

Shadow teleported over to Eggman. “Just one game.”

 _At least they’re doing something quiet_ , Tails thought.

Oh, how wrong he was. Eggman eventually won the game, and celebrated by loudly playing a kazoo. Shadow became enraged, insisting that Eggman was cheating, and demanded a rematch. The same things happened after the second game, then the third game, and so on. Tails lost count of how many times they played before both guests fell asleep mid-game. By the time that happened, it was already light outside.

* * *

Over the next few nights, Shadow and Eggman continued to annoy Tails. Eggman and Shadow annoyed each other as well.

“I want a snack,” Eggman said one of those nights.

“Get it yourself!” Tails snapped. Tails had not slept for days.

Eggman grumbled to himself as he went to the kitchen. When he got there, he was greeted by the sight of Shadow drinking milk--straight out of the carton.

Eggman gave Shadow a disapproving frown. “Really?”

Shadow wiped his mouth with his hand. “What?”

Eggman just sighed as he opened the freezer. He jumped back in surprise as at least a dozen boxes of Mildly Warm Pockets came tumbling out. He looked inside the freezer, and saw at least a dozen or so more boxes crammed inside.

“Geez! Do you really need this many?”

“No.” Shadow put the milk carton back in the fridge. “But I like them, and they were on sale.”

As Shadow headed back to bed, Eggman began picking up the boxes that were all over the floor. He spent a good several minutes trying to stuff them back inside the freezer. One of the boxes didn’t quite fit, and it only had one Mildly Warm Pocket left in it. Eggman decided it would be easier if he just ate it.

Shadow heard the microwave turn on. A couple of minutes later, he could smell the ham and cheese. He rushed into the kitchen, glaring at Eggman.

“How dare you eat one of my Mildly Warm Pockets!”

“Oh come on, you have way too many! And besides, I’m hungry.”

Shadow grabbed Eggman by his shirt's collar. “Nobody eats my food and gets away with it.”

“Oh for goodness sake!” Tails shouted from the living room. “Just let him eat the stupid Pocket!”

Shadow sighed and let go of Eggman. “Fine. But only this once.”

* * *

The next morning, Eggman was the first one to awaken. After stretching and yawning, he went into the kitchen.

Shadow came in a few minutes later. Eggman thought something seemed off about the hedgehog's appearance, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Then it came to him: Shadow’s quills were curving downwards instead of upwards, and the red stripes around the edges of his eyes were missing.

Shadow realized Eggman was staring. “What?”

“You, uh...look different.”

“What, did you think I was born with gravity-defying hair?”

“Well, uh…” Eggman had never given that any thought before. “So what, you use hair gel every morning?”

“Lots of it.”

Eggman laughed. “And let me guess, those red stripes by your eyes are actually eyeliner?”

“Yes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need my coffee.”

Shadow shoved Eggman out of the way and grabbed a bag of coffee beans. Eggman began to head out of the kitchen, but stopped when he heard a loud crunching sound. He turned around to see Shadow eating the coffee beans out of the bag.

Eggman stared in bewilderment. “You just...eat the coffee beans?”

Shadow swallowed his current mouthful, never breaking eye contact for even a moment. “Yes. They’re delicious and crunchy.”

“Okay…”

Eggman turned around and walked right out of the kitchen. He could still feel Shadow's gaze on him on the way out.

* * *

It had been at least an hour since the shower had been shut off, and Shadow still had not finished in the bathroom.

Eggman banged on the door. “Hurry up already! Do you really need that long to do your hair?”

“No, my hair is done,” Shadow responded from behind the door. “I'm doing my makeup now.”

“Listen, hedgehog: my bladder is about to explode. If you don't finish up in there soon, I'm going to head over to whatever's left of your shack and piss all over it.”

The sound of Shadow dropping his eyeliner pencil could be heard. “You wouldn't _dare_. And watch the language around Tails.”

Eggman grinned. “Oh, I _would_ dare.”

Tails had hoped to get a nap in, but as usual, Shadow and Eggman were making that impossible. He let out an animal-like growl, which went unnoticed as his two guests continued to argue.

* * *

Eggman seemed determined to make Tails and Shadow miserable. He continued to wake them in the middle of the night when he wanted to play board games or pillow fight. He stayed up and watched TV with the volume turned up. He never did the dishes, or any other chores. Shadow and Tails also soon discovered that, in between snores, Eggman evil laughed in his sleep.

It wasn’t long before Shadow too began to feel the effects of a lack of sleep.

* * *

Amy approached Tails’ house cautiously. It had been about a week since Shadow and Eggman had crashed there, and Amy could only hope that nothing disastrous had happened yet.

She knocked on the door. “Tails?”

The door opened a moment later. She was greeted by the sight of Tails yawning. There were bags under his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Amy asked. “You don’t look so good.”

“No!” Tails snapped.

“Alright, let me in.”

Amy walked into the house. “Where’s Shadow?”

Tails led her into the kitchen. “On top of the fridge.”

Sure enough, Shadow was crouched on all fours on top of the fridge. He glared down at everyone as they approached. There were bags under his eyes, like Tails.

“Who dares enter my territory?” Shadow demanded, his words slurred.

“Shadow, please come down from the fridge,” Amy said.

“No! I am Zircon, King of the Dinosaurs, and I will have your head for trespassing!”

“That’s great, Shadow,” Amy deadpanned. “Now come down off of your throne for a bit, so we can talk.”

Shadow hissed at her like a cat.

Just then, Sticks walked in. “What’s going on here?”

Amy’s face brightened. “Oh, hey Sticks!”  
She coughed. “You, uh...are you busy today? I was thinking maybe--”

Just then, Knuckles walked in as well.

“Hey!” he greeted. “What’s going on?”

Amy’s smile faltered. “Nevermind, I’ll ask later.”  
Ignoring Knuckles, she turned to Tails. “How long has this been going on?”

“Since early this morning.” Tails yawned. “I was awoken by him having a heated argument with Eggman on whether or not cereal counted as soup.”

“It _is_ soup!” Shadow yelled. “Anyone who says otherwise is blaspheming, and will be execu--”

He slumped forward suddenly, the top half of his body hanging off of the fridge, and immediately began to snore. He slid forward, and was rudely awoken when he landed head first on the floor.

“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” he mumbled.

“Did an alien take over his brain?” Sticks asked.

Knuckles chuckled. “Nah, he’s always like this when he's super tired.”

“I can’t take this anymore!” Tails shouted. “I have gotten no sleep over the past few days! It’s always Shadow re-arranging my furniture for the umpteenth time, or Eggman having the TV on full volume for hours, or Shadow ‘singing’ death metal songs in the shower, or Eggman playing his kazoo, or--”

“Okay, calm down.” Amy sighed. “Look, why don’t we all sit down and have a talk?”  
She turned to Knuckles and Sticks. “You two are free to go.”

Sticks left quickly, not wanting to be anywhere near Eggman. Knuckles stayed behind.

He leaned down and whispered into Amy’s ear, “You do know me and Sticks aren’t a thing anymore, right? I know the villagers keep saying stuff, but we’re not getting back together. We’re just friends now.”

“Wh...what does that have to do with anything?” Amy whispered back.

“I know what’s up, Amy. I’m not as dumb as people think.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Amy replied quickly.

Knuckles shook his head. “We’ll talk about this some other time.”

And with that, he left.

“What was that about?” Eggman whispered to Tails.

Tails shrugged.

* * *

About ten minutes later, Amy had managed to get everyone seated. She, Tails, and Shadow were seated on one couch, while Eggman was seated on the other and facing them.

“Now, Tails,” Amy began, “do you have something you’d like to share with Eggman and Shadow?”

“Let’s see, how do I put this?” the cranky fox replied. “You’re both horrible roommates!”

“Tch, that’s nonsense!” the sleep deprived Shadow said. “Who do you think has been protecting you from the mold monster under your fridge?”

Amy ignored him. “Let's frame our statements with ‘When you do this, it makes me feel this.’”

“Okay, fine.” Tails turned to Shadow. “When you keep me up at night with your inane questions, it makes me want to permanently glue your mouth shut.”

“Now, Tails--” Amy started.

Tails turned to Eggman, interrupting Amy as he continued. “And when you start laughing in your sleep, it makes me want to smother you with a pillow!”

“Enough!” Amy put a hand to her head, feeling like she was going to get a headache soon. “Look, until Shadow and Eggman’s homes are fixed, you’re all going to have to find a way to get along. Shadow, Eggman, maybe you we should try finding quieter activities to do at night. I’m sure Tails would appreciate that very much. Right, Tails?”

Tails just glared at everyone.

“I’ll take that as a yes. So, we can we all agree to be more considerate towards Tails from now on? Perhaps we can try finding a quieter activity to do at night. How about reading?”

“I do have a book I've been wanting to start,” Shadow replied.

Eggman looked hesitant. Amy figured Eggman wasn't fond of the idea of having to give up his nightly viewing of _The Comedy Chimp Show_.

“Will you do it if it means not getting kicked out?” Amy asked.

Eggman grumbled under his breath. “Fine.”

* * *

That night, all was quiet as everyone settled in for the night. As usual, Tails was in bed, Shadow was on the couch, and Eggman was on the floor. Shadow and Eggman were each holding a book, reading silently.

 _Finally, I can get some sleep_ , Tails thought.

But as we all know, fate sees such statements as a challenge.

Shadow was a very fast reader. So fast, that it felt as if he was turning the page every few seconds. And every time he did, it was always just a bit more loudly than necessary. Considering what Tails had been putting up with for the past week, however, this didn’t bother him as much. He could sleep through it.

Then Eggman began to do the same thing, as if in retaliation. And it was much more loudly. Shadow, disliking being one-upped, could not allow this; as always, he had to prove his superiority. And so, the battle of the page turners began.

Tails assured himself he could wait it out. After all, Shadow would probably be finished reading soon. After forty minutes, it was still going. Tails sat up and looked at Shadow. He saw that Shadow was still in the same part of the book that he had been earlier. Had he finished the book, then started over, just so he could turn the pages as obnoxiously as possible? Whatever it was, it didn’t matter anymore. It was when Eggman accidentally ripped a page out of his book (which he had borrowed from Tails) that Tails finally snapped.

“GO TO SLEEP!” he shouted suddenly, leaping from his bed to the floor and tackling Eggman.

According to how Eggman described the incident afterwards, Tails’ eyes had gone completely white, and they glowed menacingly as he yelled in a demonic voice.

“I HAVEN’T SLEPT IN DAYS! IF YOU DON’T BE QUIET RIGHT NOW, I’M GOING TO SILENCE YOU PERMANENTLY! NOW GO. THE FUDGE. _TO SLEEP_!”

“Okay, okay! I’ll stop! Geez.”

Shadow smirked, feeling rather proud of Tails. Then Tails turned to him.

“And _you_...don’t you think you’re getting off easy, either. Just because you’re my best friend doesn’t mean I won’t murder you in your sleep if you make even _one_ noise.”

“But I snore,” Shadow pointed out. “Can’t you make an exception for that?”

Tails’ gaze pierced Shadow like a sword through the torso. “One noise, and you die.”

And what that, Tails went back to bed.

Sometime later, everyone except Shadow had fallen asleep. Eggman had likely decided not to take the threats of a ten-year-old fox too seriously. But Shadow knew Tails better than anyone, and was _not_ going to take any chances.

Soon, Eggman began to laugh in his sleep, like he did every night. Shadow didn’t even dare to look as he heard the sounds of Eggman being suffocated with a pillow. This went on for a few minutes. Tails did not stop until Eggman was on the verge of passing out.

Tails was kind enough to let Eggman live this time, but most likely wouldn’t be so merciful next time. Shadow and Eggman both stayed wide awake after that, careful not to make a single sound or movement. Neither slept a wink that night, for fear that they would never wake again. Tails, on the other hand, had the best sleep of his life.

* * *

The next morning, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks dropped by again. Tails was still asleep. Eggman and Shadow both had bags under their eyes.

"You guys look terrible," Knuckles said quietly. “How many hours of sleep did you get?”

“Zero,” Eggman grumbled.

“Negative eight,” Shadow replied, loopy from a lack of sleep once again.

“Don’t be fooled by Eggman,” Sticks stage whispered. “This is clearly just stage two of his evil plan! Any minute now, we’re going to be attacked by his big Obliterator Bot with its...obliterator legs, and its obliter-bator feet!”

“I can hear you, you know,” Eggman pointed out.

“Sticks, stop worrying so much,” Amy said. “Eggman's lived here for a week, and he hasn't hatched a single evil scheme.”

As if on cue, there was a loud crash outside. Everyone (sans Tails) ran out to see what was causing the commotion. Standing before them was a large robot.

Despite his exhaustion, Eggman managed a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Shadow asked with a yawn.

“Remember when I said my island fortress was destroyed by a storm? I, uh, may have fibbed. You see, I kind of faked the destruction of my fortress as an excuse to live with you and tire you to the point of exhaust--” Eggman slouched over, nearly falling asleep. He slapped himself in an effort to stay awake. “Tire you to the point of exhaustion. So you'd be too tired to stop Obliterator Bot!”

“I knew it!” Sticks said, eyes full of fear. She gripped Amy’s shoulders. “He did have an Obliterator Bot! Why doesn’t anyone ever believe me?”

Amy felt her face growing warm as Sticks’ face got close to her own.

“It’s not like I’m paranoid!” Sticks added. She spotted her own shadow, and let go of Amy. “Stop following me!”

Eggman yawned. “Obliterator Bot, destroy...” he began to slur his words as his head drooped, “...destroy Shadow and his four friends…”

“For-tress?” Obliterator Bot replied. “Fortress. Destroy fortress. Destroy island fortress.”

That woke Eggman up again. “Wh-what? No, that’s not what I said!”

He clinged to his robot’s leg. “Obliterator Bot, do not destroy island fortress! I repeat, do not destroy island fortress!”

“Affirmative. Playing up-tempo music while destroying fortress.” Speakers popped out of Obliterator Bot’s shoulders, blasting up-tempo rock music.

“NO NO NO NO NO!”

The others watched as the robot walked away, Eggman helplessly chasing after it.

Eggman soon stopped and panted for breath. “You...you have to help me…”

“Why should I help you three?” Shadow asked, his eyes unfocused.

“Because if you don't, I'm truly stuck living with you until I build a new island fortress.”

Shadow sighed. “Fine.”

* * *

The gang had not dared to wake Tails. They just hoped that he would still be asleep when they got back, and never know that they had “borrowed” his plane.

As soon as they arrived at Eggman’s lair, Eggman himself was dismayed by how much damage Obliterator Bot had already done.

“Gotta...stop him…” Eggman mumbled, slumping to the ground. “But...maybe later...”

Shadow immediately flopped over. “This bed is nice. I like it.”

Sticks ran up to Shadow and began stomping on his back.

Shadow jumped up. “We’re under attack!”

Sticks woke Eggman up as well.

“Eggman, you built that thing,” Knuckles said. “How do we take it down?”

“By activating two kill switches at the same time,” Eggman replied. “They're inside the lair.”  
He pointed at each of the switches. “There, and there.”

“Alright.” Shadow turned to his friends. “Amy, Knuckles, Sticks, you distract Oblite-whatever-its-name-is. Eggman, you do one switch, and I’ll do the other.”

Eggman nodded. Shadow took off immediately, running through Eggman’s laser defense system. (Normally he would have just teleported, but he was too tired to focus on that.) Eggman ran to a control panel, quickly disabling a laser wall just before Shadow could crash into it. Shadow dodged two lasers, and fell onto his back. As he began to slide, his eyelids started to droop, and he was in danger of dozing off. Eggman deactivated the second laser wall just in time. Shadow stopped sliding and woke up.

Eggman ran over to an access panel. He pressed a button next to it, opening the kill switch doors. He then ran over to the other side, where Shadow had already fallen asleep on the ground. Eggman stomped next to Shadow, waking him up.

“Jam the kinetic barrier processor!”

Shadow assumed Eggman meant “pull the lever”, and did so. Eggman ran back over to the other side. He tried to pull the lever on his side as well, but fell asleep while doing so. Shadow had also fallen asleep, letting go of the lever as a result.

Meanwhile, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks were confronting Obliterator Bot.

Sticks narrowed her eyes. “I knew you were coming. But you will never obliterate Sticks, because Sticks is unoblite--unoble--unobitababl...you can't kill me.”

Amy giggled.

“Hey, what’s that on the ground?” Knuckles asked, pointing at something.

Amy turned, and noticed that Eggman had dropped his kazoo on the ground.

“I’m going to go check on Shadow and Eggman real quick. They might have fallen asleep.”

“Nah, I’ll do it,” Knuckles replied.

He glanced back and forth between Sticks and Amy. Then he winked. Before Amy could protest, Knuckles had already run off. Uncertainly, Amy approached Sticks.

“So, uh, Sticks…can I ask you something?”

Sticks dodged a blow from Obliterator Bot. “What?”

“Well, um...I was wondering…” Amy hit Obliterator Bot’s foot with her hammer. “Would you like to...um…”

“Look out!” Sticks pushed Amy out of the way before the giant robot could crush her.

Amy stood up and brushed herself off. “Would you...like to hang out today? Just the two of us? We can have lunch together. Oh, we can have a picnic!”  
She quickly added, “As best friends.”

Sticks smiled. “Sure!”

As for Knuckles, he was starting to panic. After a few minutes of trial and error, he’d managed to figure out that Eggman and Shadow both had to pull their levers at the same time. The problem was, he couldn’t get both of them to stay awake long enough to pull this off. He looked behind him, seeing the kazoo on the ground again. An idea came to him! He ran over to the kazoo and picked it up, then ran back to where Shadow and Eggman were. He took a deep breath, then blew the kazoo. Shadow and Eggman woke up instantly. Together, they pulled the switches, shutting Obliterator Bot down.

“Hey, Shadow!” Eggman pointed to a large piece of metal on the ground. He grinned. “Pillow fight!”

Shadow realized what he meant and grabbed the piece of metal. He ran over to Obliterator Bot. He jumped into the air, letting out a battle cry as he brought the metal down onto the robot’s head, knocking the head off. Amy dove towards Sticks and pushed her out of the way, just before the head could land on her.

“And the crowd goes wild,” Shadow mumbled, before immediately crumpling to the ground and falling asleep.

The front door to Eggman’s lair opened. Orbot and Cubot peeked outside.

“Is it over?” Cubot asked nervously.

“Everything’s fine!” Knuckles assured him.

Amy, once she’d had a chance to recover, found herself in a very awkward position on top of Sticks.

“ _Oh-my-gosh-I’m-so-sorry_!” Amy jumped up. She held out a hand, blushing. “H-here, let me help you…”

She helped Sticks to her feet.

Orbot and Cubot hovered over to Eggman, who had fallen asleep on the ground.

“We’ll get him to bed,” said Orbot.

He went over to Eggman’s feet, while Cubot went over to Eggman’s head. Together, they attempted to lift him off the ground.

As the two robots struggled to drag Eggman inside, Knuckles walked over to Shadow. Carefully, he scooped Shadow off of the ground, then threw him over his shoulder like a limp towel.

“Let’s get home before Tails wakes up.” Knuckles shot Amy a sly grin. “So...you girls doing anything today?”

“Sticks and I were going to spend the day together,” Amy replied.

Knuckles winked. “Cool.”

Shadow woke up late that night in his newly repaired shack. Eggman woke up early in the evening. Tails didn’t wake up until the next morning. Amy and Sticks had a fun day together.

**Author's Note:**

> Some things I'd like to note about this story:
> 
> -Most of Shadow's nightly questions were ~~stolen~~ borrowed from the internet. The statement about Tupperware lids was a joke my mom made once. The one about the light in the fridge is an "Ed Edd n Eddy" reference IIRC.  
> -Some of the dialogue was taken straight from the original episode. (Most of it is mine, though.)  
> -Mildly Warm Pockets is a reference to Hot Pockets. An anonymous person on Tumblr suggested the name. Ham and cheese is one of my favorite flavors. Shadow liking Hot Pockets is a reference to an old interview with "Shadow" (actually Sonic Team) that some site did before Shadow's self-titled game came out.  
> -Knuckles and Sticks having a romantic history is a nod to how they used to be my OTP, before Sonuckles took its place.  
> -Since Sticks has no canon age, I'd like to clarify that I imagine her to be somewhere between Knuckles and Amy's ages.  
> -I intend to do a side story at some point that will expand on Amy and Sticks' relationship.  
> -"Exterminator 2" is a reference to "Terminator 2". Someone on either Tumblr or Twitter came up with the name. Shadow liking the Terminator films is another reference to that interview.  
> -"Peril" is a reference to a board game called "Trouble". I used to play it a lot as a kid.  
> -Shadow eating the coffee beans is a reference to the third Sonic Twitter Takeover.  
> -In the episode "Aim Low", Tails at one point gets annoyed with Sonic, and growls. But instead of a person growl, it sounds more like an animal growl. I always thought that was cute, so I decided to have him do that in this story too.  
> -In this AU, Knuckles is really good at reading people and understanding them.  
> -"Go the fudge to sleep" is a reference to a certain book with a similar title (instead of "fudge" it's a certain four letter word).  
> -The reason Shadow hasn't killed Eggman yet is that, if Shadow doesn't have a villain to fight, he'll be forced to get a real job.  
> -I actually forgot to put Orbot and Cubot in the story until I got close to the end; I didn't feel like trying to write them into the scenes I'd already done, so I just had them make a cameo at the end.
> 
> As always: if you have any questions about this story, or my Shadow Boom AU in general, feel free to ask me! I enjoy answering questions about this AU.


End file.
